As Iowans fill out their state income tax forms this year, they can help to support Iowa’s wild creatures by donating to the Fish and Wildlife Fund. Stephanie Shepherd, a wildlife diversity biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Boone, says the so-called Chickadee Checkoff was the first such checkoff added to the Iowa tax form back in the early 1980s.
Donations to the check-off have been rising slowly in the past few years, bringing in 136-thousand dollars last year from eight-thousand taxpayers.
Iowans who want to support the Chickadee Checkoff will find it on Line 55-A under the heading: “Contributions.”
Shepherd says if every Iowa taxpayer donated just one-dollar, it would mean one-point-five MILLION dollars for wildlife and natural resources conservation.
